And I pray for the day when movies don’t hit home So hard
And the brown children in the midst of war waving a flag Don’t break your heart
And the world Splitting in two of a “Natural Disaster” doesn’t make your jaw clench
And God I pray that when people cry because the Lex Luthers of the world Make them feel bad And the immigrants are the Superheroes
That the Holy Spirit Keeps Tapping them On the shoulder nipping Them in the Ear And touching them on their heart
Because Maybe art Isn’t the one Way through
But I’ll take Blood, Sweat, Tears, Votes
And your favorite Pop Character
Because At this point Anything To Welcome people
to there revelation
God help us Walk until everyone can see the Superpuppy as cute
and all earthlings as Beloved
We pray. Amen.
Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”
with thanks to my middle child Westley who loves all movies, and honors remakes and sequels, etc and more of the thing he loves and teaches a deep appreciation of all art–it’s good remember to take joy in all things (This movie was really good, but it is truly fun to walk in to everything with the attitude of, this will be fun)
Screw this Screw this Reality Screw this Bill Screw Money Screw Whiteness Screw Racism
Screw Millionaires Special Interests Backroom Bills And the ones we can see too
Screw working together with Those who hate the weak While the hungry cry out the people are being kidnapped Your grandparents don’t know how they are going to get medical care Disabilities, Queerness, and our Black and Brown siblings are hated with the full force of the law
Screw that
Screw our children being afraid of Everything Screw the hard questions about the world they are coming into Screw the rolling back of Environmental justice
Screw redefining words so that everything becomes “too political”
Screw Praying when we should be Arguing Walking Fighting Voting And Protecting Each Other
And Screw this Economy that doesn’t Give us time to breathe Much less Care
Screw Everything And Screw Up my face With the tears That run down It As I don’t Have the right Words Or Actions Or Things to Do And all I have Is the Gut reaction Of Screw Everything And I empty Myself Full on Confessional to God
Saying Screw it
And I figure God knows And is probably saying the same thing With me
Screw Injustice And Hopelessness And “Good Enough” This isn’t gonna Cut it Anymore
Screw it Until we Screw Together Something else I don’t even know What But somehow Screw it Is a prayer
Holy Spirit Come Help us to say Screw it To all we need to let go of Then help us to Unscrew all the Loose Screws
(And then Maybe Find us the tools we need To start the work again)
But right now Screw it
Feel free to share/adapt/Use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”
But I will Praise God Who is Merciful to those who need Good News Tear the mighty off their supremacy courts Lift up the oppressed Free the kidnapped
Help us to magnify Your Power and Glory So that your Grace Overshadows all of this evil Feeding the hunger Sending the Rich Techbros Comfortable Politicians White Supremacists Away with Nothing For their promises are Empty
But you God Remember That your Promises are Made of Empathy and Mercy And endure Forever And so we stand with You God The God of Immigrants Chosen Names and Found Families Now and Forever Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
I admit I was relieved When someone said Let’s go to a sanctuary Come Let us God And Seek God
For I need to rest my weary soles soul something somewhere
And my house is way too messy
And before I knew it My soles soul were standing at your gates
And we were knocking on heavens door And I realized
that God’s Kin-dom is unlike any other
Binding together people who I had never seen or known
And my heart leapt To my throat and I wanted to scream cry and lay down and rest and never get up again For here is a place where everyone would come up and be welcomed
There are no locks in heaven
and as I put my hand On your door my soles felt the ground itself welcome me And gratitude Spilled from my lips Unbeckoned
And Judgement Came And it sounded like this “Peace will radiate from you, It will be part and parcel of your homes, your walls, your cities
It is promised Even in our messy houses cities churches governances countries and streets
And that peace will hum from our throats And we will sing greet and radiate to one another “Peace be within you”
And so We will go And seek Good and Sanctuary
For the sake of this needed Sanctuary That my soul and the itchy Soles of my feet ache for I will keep seeking it
Tears roll down the face of Starlette Thomas, of Bowie, Md., as she holds a chunk of pavement from the Black Lives Matter mural, Monday, March 10, 2025, as the mural begins to be demolished in Washington. “I needed to be here to bear witness,” says Thomas, who was present at the 2020 George Floyd protests. “For me the Black Lives Matter sign etched in stone was a declaration of somebodyness and to watch it be undone in this way was very hurtful. To walk away with a piece of that, it means it’s not gone. It’s more than brick and mortar.” (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Image
And this morning God All I can think about is the passage
What forbids me from being baptized Philip? asks the Ethiopian Eunuch and I’m sure Philip thinks of all of the ramifications that this person is of nebulous rank nebulous gender* nebulous status from another country
what authority does Philip have? But Philip was sent by an angel to say yes
And I feel like Philip running alongside chariots not knowing what authority we have
We are in a nebulous time
knowing things are in flux being asked hard questions
and I hope we say yes as often as we can
Because God knows God is not preventing us from loving and including each other
God’s yes is strong even when we don’t know
And it’s ok not to know
I don’t know God that’s my prayer I just don’t know Amen
Feel Free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
*Though to be clear that individual, the Ethiopian Eunuch, may have known exactly who they were and what their gender status was, the LBTQIA breadth and depth is beautiful in all of it’s multiplicities
katyandtheword 